The Invention of Lying, a 2009 fantasy romantic comedy film featuring Ricky Gervais and Jennifer Garner, was written and directed by Ricky Gervais and Matthew Robinson. The movie depicts an alternative reality in which the very concept of lying does not exist and in which humanity is incapable of speaking other than the truth. In a world where lies, deception, and falsehoods are impossible, and in which people only speak in unvarnished and brutal truths, people simply enunciate every thought that passes through their head while credulously believing everything they hear. The film portrays “the cruelty and bluntness of a society without lies and how the invention of lying makes society more humane and friendly.”[1] Through an exploration of what such an innocent, candid, gullible and flattery-free world might look like, the Invention of Lying also directs a critical eye on religion and religious belief. In this film, Gervais provides a humorous yet literate approach to critiquing religious belief in popular culture.[2]
In the film, protagonist Mark Bellison (Ricky Gervais) is a struggling screenwriter in a film industry limited to historical readings, given the absence of any fictional imagination. Meanwhile, Mark’s ultimate goal is to seduce and marry the beautiful Anna McDoogles (Jennifer Garner) whose feelings are not reciprocal as she believes Mark’s physique would prevent her from having ideal genetic offspring.[3] Following the loss of his job and his imminent eviction from his apartment, Mark goes to the bank to close his account. The teller informs him that the computers are down and asks him how much money he has in his account. Mark then has an epiphany that enables him to tell the world’s first lie, which is that he has $800, the amount he owes in rent. With this newly discovered ability to lie, Mark uses it for personal gain, fame and wealth, through gambling and successful, yet bogus, screenwriting. He also learns that lying can also be used for good and for helping others. He prevents his neighbor Frank (Jonah Hill) from committing suicide and, at his mother’s deathbed where he tearfully explains that the afterlife is a joyful world filled with goodness, he gives his mother a “happy death” having invented for her the concept of heaven. Mark’s newfound “knowledge” transforms him into a sort of prophet, thus attracting hundreds of people to his doorstep in search of “truth”. In a reference to the Ten Commandments, Mark tells the world, through ten rules, that he speaks to a “Man In the Sky” who controls everything and promises a “good place” in the afterlife unless people do more than three “bad things”. Later, Mark’s romantic plans begin to unravel when he loses Anna to the more genetically attractive Brad Kessler (Rob Lowe). However, at Anna and Brad’s wedding ceremony, Mark declines to use his powers of lying in an effort to win back Anna. He admits to her that a relation based on lies “wouldn’t count”. Anna and Mark end up married with a child who apparently also knows how to lie.
The United States is a very religious country. According to a recent report by the PEW Research Center, 76.5% of Americans consider themselves people of faith. Among those, 70.6% identify as Christians[4]. It is within this devout religious landscape that Gervais and Robinson situate the film The Invention of Lying. The story line imagines a fictional America that’s never been exposed to religion and never exposed to a lie, with the implication that religion doesn’t exist because it is a lie. The film depicts an alternative “meaning of life” in the absence of religion. What would such a society look like and how would people react to it? The film takes a satirical approach to religion and situates it within American society and culture. For example, the comparison of Old Testament Moses with unassuming suburban Mark Bellison is quite ironic, as is the re-conceptualization of The Ten Commandments, originally inscribed on plaques of stone now presented as “ten rules” written on Pizza Hut boxes. By portraying something so sacred on something so disposable as an empty pizza box, Gervais demonstrates not only the futility of these commandments, but also perhaps draws an ironic parallel between religion and consumer capitalism in order to critique America’s unwavering commitments to similarly hollow ideologies. Similarly, Gervais and Robinson ironically compare biblical mortal sins leading to eternal damnation to that of avoiding doing three “bad things”. “Like baseball?” asks a man in the crowd, Gervais thus parodies how Americans can only understand things through their own culture and sports, in this case “America’s pastime”. The screenwriters also take issue with religious “gospel” that often presents inexplicable or unfortunate events in life as “all part of God’s plan,” a spiritual justification the film sets out to ridicule. When Mark explains to the crowd that the “Man In the Sky” is responsible for causing death, disease and misfortune, they all rush to curse the “Man In the Sky.” But when he adds that he’s also responsible for all the good things, a man concludes, ‘so he’s kind of a good guy but he’s also kind of a prick too.” In this clever juxtaposition of the divine and the crass, the scriptwriters provoke us into doubting religious injunction and authority. Where normally one responds to such authority with solemn respect, now there is only ridicule and derision. The very basis of religion is questioned by the film given that religion is altogether absent from the world because lies don’t exist. The message is clear: religion is but a lie destined to comfort humanity in the face of the incomprehensible: pain, loss, injustice, and death. Indeed, the film implies that it is the fear of death that allows religion to flourish in the first place because humans fear the unknown. In this light, religious faith is “a feint against despair”.[5] As Brad Kessler (Rob Lowe) says to Mark “I’ve always been threatened by you, because there’s something about you that I don’t understand, and I hate things that I don’t understand.”
As
such, the film invites us to question both religious texts and religious
figures, including God. It prods us into doubting our complacent beliefs and
easy credulity. It sets out to debunk religion as little more than myth and
lies embraced and validated across history through habit. The film becomes, in
the words of critic James Musson, “a rather curious mix of commentary about
religion in our own world and an insight into what might happen if we had the
chance to invent morality again.”[6] Nevertheless, the film concedes
the argument that even if religion is a lie, there are benefits to it, such as
helping people cope with life’s harsh realities and as a path, however much
fabricated, to happiness. “By pushing truth-telling to cold and ridiculous
extremes, we’re being persuaded that society only becomes bearable when lies
are allowed, that these soften the blow of the honest truth about us.”[7]
Materials Cited :
[1] Sjaak ven der Geest, “Lying in defence of privacy: anthropological and methodological observations”, in International Journal of Social Research Methodology, Volume 21, 2018 – Issue 5 (see footnote 7) https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13645579.2018.1447866
[2] DiPaolo, Marc (ed.), Unruly Catholics from Dante to Madonna – Faith, Heresy, and Politics in Cultural Studies. Scarecrow Press (2013), Preface, p. xiv.
[3] One film critic characterizes the cynicism with the conclusion “Love is a genetic strategy”. Roberts, R., “Film Review: The Invention of Lying” in Film Journal International (Oct 2,2009) http://www.filmjournal.com/content/film-review-invention-lying
[4] The Pew Research Center, Religion & Public Life : http://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/
[5] Roberts, R., “Film Review: The Invention of Lying” in Film Journal International (Oct 2,2009) http://www.filmjournal.com/content/film-review-invention-lying
[6] James Musson, The Invention of Lying, https://www.bethinking.org/culture/the-invention-of-lying
[7] Ibid.
Religion in Popular Culture Lab 